driveline growl/noise

[tallboyrichard]

:banghead: Trying to pinpoint a driveline growl, have replaced front bearing hubs, brake discs and keeper clips, and front u-joint at front differential, still have noise. When front driveshaft was out, drove around for a week with no noise/growl. will be replacing Cardan joint at xfer case next but wondering if this could be a pinion or xfer case bearing problem. Can anyone shed some light on this or had a similar experience? Thanks

[Wild and Free]

External pinion checks....seal leaking? any movement at all in and out up or down indicates a loose or bad bearing on the pinion. If thats good pop the front diff cover off and see if there is any signs of excessive metal laying inside the housing. Then try to pry the diff carrier side to side to see if there is any excessive movement in the carrier bearings.

[tallboyrichard]

Thanks Wild and free, I've been into the differential and found no abnormal conditions other than some metal dust and some metal flakes in the bottom of the housing. No play or leakage form the pinion and no play in the carriers. any other ideas? Thanks

[ISX]

The machine shop I worked in could have stayed afloat by working on just 2nd gen dodge cardan joints.. Nobody greases them and then they go out quickly. I would definitely check it out.

[Wild and Free]

Metal flakes and dust indicate a failing bearing or race or a ring and pinion starting to flake. This will cause the rumble you describe, time to pull the carrier out and inspect. A small amount of super fines is normal, if there were flakes its time to dive in, there should never be flakes, flakes are bad.